Shelley Fralic: Confessions of a Netflix binger

My latest addiction: I might be late to the party, but I am hooked on watching TV on my terms

Netflix bingers rejoice — Kevin Spacey’s conniving congressman returns for a second season of House of Cards on Feb. 14.

My name is Shelley Fralic and I am addicted to Netflix.

My Netflix binging, for there is no other name for it, began but mere months ago when, having grown weary of the big networks increasingly polluting my small screen with flotsam and jetsam, I took the advice of a fellow television junkie and checked out the charms of Netflix.

In just a few weeks, I have watched every season and every single episode of Orange is the New Black, Arrested Development, House of Cards, Damages, Pretty Little Liars, Happy Endings, Downton Abbey and Suits.

On my iPad. Late at night, one episode after another, until my eyes blur, until the battery dismisses me, until the clock suggests sleep might be in order should the next day be a useful one of any sort.

My addiction, thus far, has consumed a total of 348 episodes of various new and used television shows though not a single movie, as that pleasure is reserved for actually attending a real theatre.

Some of those shows have been original Netflix series, such as Orange is the New Black and House of Cards, others are recycled network series that once aired in prime time (Damages and Downton Abbey) and still others are cancelled-then-resurrected fan favourites, back by popular demand (Arrested Development).

I am, in a word, hooked.

If a little late to the party.

Netflix started its flat-fee unlimited subscription-based service in 2007. Today, its on-demand Internet streaming of television shows and movies has attracted more than 40 million global subscribers (Canada was its first international foray, in 2010) who access the digital Netflix library on their own timetables for a fee that starts at $8 a month, which makes bricks and mortar predecessors such as Blockbuster seem like robber barons.

Oh, and that 40 million is up fourfold from the company’s 2009 numbers.

The increasing dominance of Netflix, the newest revolutionary in an ongoing media war where consumers demand the movies and television shows they want when they want them, can’t be a surprise.

No late fees. No shipping charges. No commercials. No restrictions. No cluttery DVD cases. Convenient portability. Instant gratification. It’s a formula that is shaking up Hollywood, turning the once-relevant backlot machine into a potential bit player. Dare to cancel a popular cop thriller like The Killing, as the AMC network did? No worries, Netflix will ride to the rescue and kick start a new season.

There are deniers, of course, who decry Netflix’s own brand of McNuggetization for quashing the anticipation of a regularly programmed weekly television series — no waiting for months, for instance, to find out who shot J.R. — and for undermining the power of a feature film by squishing it on to a small screen.

The reality is that we are processing our personal entertainment consumption differently these days, and Netflix — at least for now — is dishing up the magic sauce.

Like other acolytes of Netflix nation, I am not immune to its best feature: I am, finally, in complete control of that cursed remote, and can watch what I want, anywhere I want, be that on a ferry, in a cottage or, yes, under the covers after dark.

One of the vagaries of addiction, of course, comes when the supply dries up. It’s crushing to learn that Glenn Close as the brilliantly evil lawyer in Damages has tried her last case, and that Happy Endings, a more clever version of Friends that starred a gay character and not a gay caricature, are done.

But all is not lost.

Kevin Spacey’s conniving congressman returns for a second season of House of Cards on Feb. 14, with 13 new episodes immediately on tap for bingers. And, on Christmas Eve, Netflix launches its third original series, a children’s cartoon called Turbo: F.A.S.T., a sequel to the DreamWorks animated movie about a speed demon snail.

As for my own dubious viewing predilections, I am now beguiled nightly by the first season of Gossip Girl, an utterly frivolous show with absolutely no redeeming value but for its New York bitchiness and haughty haute couture.

But I will be indulging my new-found weakness with the knowledge that I am in good company.

An online customer survey commissioned by Netflix in late November and released last week found that half of Netflix users watch one season of a show in a single week, as many as 22 episodes, and that a quarter of users have watched 13 episodes in just two days.

The Harris Interactive poll also found Netflix bingers indulge regularly and do so without guilt, and that the majority of bingers would rather stream a television show than read their friends’ dull Facebook postings. About half, according to the poll, binge in the company of others.

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